One scanning centre was sealed and a few were issued notices in raids conducted by the district Health authorities on hospitals and diagnostic laboratories providing ultrasound scanning facilities.
Of the 190 scanning centres in the district, the Health authorities with 19 teams were able to reach about 150 centres.
There were four district-level teams headed by the District Medical Officer (DMO) and additional DMOs, and taluk-level teams headed by government hospital superintendents.
The inspections were part of a State-wide operation to regulate the operation of scanning centres, said DMO K.V. Beena.
“The centres providing scanning facilities are expected to follow certain rules and make records available for inspection,” said Dr. Beena. “Many owners are either unaware or are lax about complying with the rules. Those who were found with minor defects in keeping the scanning centres and records in order were given a week’s time to rectify the anomalies. One scan centre was sealed because it had been issued warnings earlier too to comply with rules,” she added.
The raids were part of measures to regulate scanning centres after a national-level study found several anomalies in their functioning. Teams from the Union Health Ministry had visited Thrissur and Thiruvananthapuram in connection with the findings.
The raids aimed at making the working of scanning centres transparent and accessible to inspections.